Consultant News

United Nations recruiting Advocacy Specialist

Geneva, Switzerland, 10 October 2016

Organisational Context

Tuberculosis has now become the world's leading cause of death from an infectious disease. The United Nations hosted Stop TB Partnership is leading the fight to change this and to realize the goal of elimination of Tuberculosis (TB) as a public health problem and, ultimately, to obtain a world free of TB by ensuring that every TB patient has access to effective diagnosis and treatment.

The Partnership is recognized as a unique international body with the power to align actors all over the world in the fight against TB. The Stop TB Partnership Secretariat is housed by the United Nations Office for Project Services in Geneva, Switzerland.

Founded in 2001, the Stop TB Partnership's mission is to serve every person who is vulnerable to TB and ensure that high-quality treatment is available to all who need it. Our partners include international and technical organizations, government programmes, research and funding agencies, foundations, NGOs, civil society and community groups and the private sector.

The world's failure to adequately address TB and other diseases of poverty is due in large part to a lack of political will and awareness. There is therefore an urgent need to scale up advocacy in both donor and low income countries to secure political leadership, increased funding, and reduce stigma for tuberculosis. The Partnership is looking for an experienced and passionate advocacy professional to join its Advocacy and Communications team for a six month consultancy, with possibility of extension.

Functional Responsibilities

The Advocacy Specialist will be responsible for working on all aspects of the Stop TB Partnership's Advocacy work, including:

Contribute to the development and execution of policy and advocacy strategies related to the Board, Secretariat and key partners;

Develop an advocacy toolkit for the Global Plan to End TB and other tailored advocacy materials to support rollout, uptake and evaluation of the Plan and related documents.

Supports the Advocacy and Policy Officer to identify opportunities for the development of strategic programs, alliances and coalitions with other organizations, political leaders, and Ministers;

Provide inputs on advocacy efforts in selected countries, assist in developing and rolling out global campaigns for TB, including the recently launched TB Red Arrow as the new global symbol of the TB cause;

Contribute to the implementation of the BRICS and TB stream of advocacy work, including assembly of a BRICS and TB advocacy focused report, organizing BRICS TB meetings, and supporting advocacy in BRICS countries;

Provide substantive support in implementing advocacy components of the Global Plan to End TB 2016-2020, including a Civil Society Scorecard to measure countries implementation of TB Policies against data collected by the Partnership;

Produce advocacy materials to equip partners and stakeholders in different countries to influence decision-makers and for general advocacy and communications, including campaign toolkits and calls to action;

Arrange external meetings and side-events with advocacy targets and stakeholders from governments, Permanent Missions to the UN, NGOs, and other external actors;

Assist with developing and updating the Partnership's global advocacy strategy and M&E of the advocacy workplan;

Supports the Advocacy and Policy Officer to monitor external global events and political opportunities for TB advocacy;